Sexism row: Wimbledon winner Marion Bartoli faced the remark she 'was never going to be a looker' from presenter John Inverdale

BBC Presenter John Inverdale has blamed his controversial remark about Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli not being a “looker” on hayfever.

Inverdale, 56, sparked a furore last summer when he made the comment about the appearance of the French player, who had just won the 2013 ladies final.

The presenter, who has now signed up with Bartoli, 29, to commentate for ITV on the French Open, told Radio Times magazine that as well as feeling unwell, he was attempting to fill time.

“I was feeling so ill that day, I had terrible hayfever and all I could think of was that I wanted to go home to bed,” he said.

He added: “Actually I was going to use the phrase ‘physical attributes’ and then - and remember, you’re thinking all this in a split second - I thought, ‘No, don’t say that’. And then I said something far worse.”

Bartoli said she was not bothered by the comment, adding: “I’d known John a long time, and I knew what he was trying to say. At the end of the day I am a tennis player, I know I’m not 6ft tall, I’m not the same long, lean shape as Maria Sharapova, but the beauty of tennis is that anyone can win, tall or short.”